Progress 06/01/24 to 05/31/25

Outputs
Target Audience:This study's target audience includes scientists, graduate and undergraduate students in nutrition, food Science, nanoencapsulation of bioactive food compounds, cardiovascular disease, microbiome, and obesity fields, and the general public. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?I have been collaborating with Dr. Moustaid-Moussa (CO-PD) at Texas Tech University (TTU). She has long-term documented expertise in several bioactive components and their anti-inflammatory mechanisms in obesity and modulation of the gut microbiome. The microbiome sequencing for this project will be performed in the Center of Biotechnology and the Genomic Center at TTU. In addition, I have been collaborating with Dr. Ahmad Kalbasi (consultant) at Texas A&M University. He has extensive expertise in food technology and nanoencapsulation. He has experience with enzyme extraction of anthocyanins with different solvents regarding ACNs yield and stability against degradation. He is also involved in glycol-macro-peptides (GMP) production from the whey solution and using a coaxial electrospinning system to encapsulate curcumin with whey protein. Throughout this year, I have been training one PhD student, Cherishma Ghanta (Nutrition Science major), two Master's students, Amrita Thapa and Eunice Boafo (Nutrition Science major), and two undergraduate students, Aideli Olivares and Hope Kelley (Nutrition Science major). They have been learning several lab techniques, including optimizing coaxial Electrospinning for microencapsulation, including core and shell structure, optimizing the distance, voltage, and flow rate for Electrospinning, optimizing the composition of core and shell using GMP, gelatin, polyethylene oxide (PEO), and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), using a freezer mill to decrease the particle size of RWP, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and particle size analyzer (PSA). This study has significantly increased my knowledge regarding nutrient encapsulation techniques, especially polyphenols, which are sensitive to oxidation and the human digestive system. Also, during the first year of this study, I had the opportunity to work on one research paper and one review paper (which will be submitted soon). I have also been involved as an early career member of the American Society of Nutrition (ASN), the American Heart Association (AHA), the Obesity Society (TOS), and the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids (ISSFAL). I have been an editorial board member for the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry (JNB). My responsibilities include reviewing and providing feedback on submitted manuscripts and recommending topics for special issues, forums, and commissioned reviews, which are mostly related to my ongoing research studies. Additionally, in 2024, I was selected as Secretary of the Dietary Bioactive Components (DBC) Research Interest Section (RIS) within the American Society of Nutrition (ASN) and the Groups Engaging Members (GEM). In this role, my responsibilities include fostering relationships with nutrition professionals, researchers, and educators and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration to address complex nutritional challenges. Last year, I was a proposal panelist for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). I served on the Proposal Panel Review Committee in the Food and Human Health category (A-1343). This excellent opportunity significantly increased my knowledge regarding bioactive food compounds (especially polyphenols) and nanoencapsulation, which is related to my current USDA study. It was also an excellent opportunity to familiarize myself with recent studies and possible research collaborations. Furthermore, I was invited to serve as a member of the American Heart Association's (AHA) Fellowship Proposal Review Committee in Molecular Signaling, which greatly exposed me to scientific networking. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The preliminary results of this study were presented in the Student Creative Arts and Research Symposium by my PhD student (Cherishma Ghanta) in April 22. Additionally, despite the short timeframe since receiving this award, our team has already generated sufficient preliminary data, which we have submitted as an abstract to the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) conference in Orlando, FL, from May 31 to June 3. Moreover, the progress and results of this study will be presented at the USDA 2025 Food and Human Health Program--Project Directors' meeting on June 11-13, 2025. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, an in vitro study using the gastrointestinal digestion system will estimate the release of encapsulated RWP. For this part, the in vitro release behavior of encapsulated RWP was studied under a simulated gastrointestinal digestion system. Furthermore, we are conducting an ongoing mouse study to test the bioavailability and effects of encapsulated RWP on gut microbiota composition and cholesterol efflux capacity (CE) in a mouse model of dietary obesity (C57/BL6 mice). CEwill be measured in diet-induced obese mice with encapsulated RWP. Different dietary groups will be used to elucidate the effects of microencapsulated RWP on gut microbiota diversity and CE including a low-fat diets (LF) (10% fat, 20% protein, 70% carbohydrate), or LF diet plus 4% of pure or encapsulated RWP, or high fat diet (HF) (45% energy from fat, 20% protein, 35% carbohydrates), or HF diet plus 4% of pure or encapsulated RWP. Food intake will be measured twice, and body weight will be measured weekly. Fecal samples will be collected 3 times during the study, at the start, mid-point, and end of dietary intervention. After 12 weeks of the diet, the mice will be sacrificed. Liver, brain, large intestine, cecal and colonic feces, and serum samples will be collected for subsequent analysis of gene, protein, and SCFAs. Microbiome sequencing and analysis will be performed to identify microbial communities' composition, diversity, and function. I also plan to develop a peer-reviewed paper summarizing and critically analyzing the literature in this area. The findings from this study will serve as the foundation for submitting a regular USDA grant to expand this research further.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Aim 1. Optimize anthocyanin-rich red wine pomace (RWP) by microencapsulation and formulations with MGP performing electrospinning:Coaxial electrospinning was used to create the core-shell nanofibers successfully. Initially, uniaxial electrospinning was conducted to optimize the parameters, followed by coaxial electrospinning. Red wine pomace (RWP) was subjected to a freezer mill to decrease its particle size. The coaxial electrospinning procedure was performed with the core and shell at the same distance (17.2 cm) and voltage (23 kV), with different flow rates (0.23 mL/h for the core and 0.55 mL/h for the shell, respectively. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to confirm the incorporation of RWP, while scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to assess the core-shell nanofiber. RWP's particle size distribution was mainly below the 200 µm range. Formulations containing 13.5% w/v RWP outperformed the 20% w/v RWP formulation regarding fiber production and homogeneity. The shell is made of gelatin (14% w/v) and GMP (2% w/v), while the RWP core was at 13.5% (w/v), both at the same concentration of acetic acid (90%v/v). The core-shell nanofibers exhibited diameters between 87.3 nm and 649 nm. Future studies will evaluate the RWP-GMP nanofibers in gastrointestinal conditions to assess their stability and release profile. Aim 2. Evaluate the bioavailability and gut microbiota modulating effects of encapsulated grape pomace on cholesterol efflux (CE) in diet-induced obese B6 mice: We have an ongoing mice study for this aim to elucidate the effects of encapsulated RWP on gut microbiota health.For this aim, the cholesterol efflux (CE) will be measured in diet-induced obese mice with encapsulated RWP. The dietary groups will include a low-fat diets (LF) (10% fat, 20% protein, 70% carbohydrate), or LF diet plus 4% of pure or encapsulated RWP, or high fat diet (HF) (45% energy from fat, 20% protein, 35% carbohydrates), or HF diet plus 4% of pure or encapsulated RWP. Food intake will be measured twice, and body weight will be measured weekly. Fecal samples will be collected 3 times during the study, at start, mid-point, and end of dietary intervention. After 12 weeks of the diet, the mice will be sacrificed. Liver, brain, large intestine, cecal and colonic feces, and serum samples will be collected for subsequent analysis of gene, protein, and SCFAs. We will measure the bioavailability of ACN metabolites, such as malvidin-3-O-glucoside and petunidin-3-O-glucoside, in serum and target tissues such as the brain and liver.

Publications